Deputies propose that cancer diagnosis and treatment be free

The PRI parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies proposed to reform article 36 of the General Health Law, to exempt the collection of any recovery fee from diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancer, both in patients under and over 18 years of age, whether or not they are beneficiaries or beneficiaries of an institution in the health sector.

Through the deputy Hortensia María Luisa Noroña Quezada, the tricolor said that in the case of breast cancer, reconstruction after a mastectomy or lumpectomy will be mandatory and considered within the treatment, so it will also be exempt from all fees. recovery, including the necessary subsequent procedures and those required to improve the reconstructed breast, its symmetry and balance.

In the initiative, which was turned over to the Health Commission, the legislator assured that the January 1, new rules of the Institute of Health for Well-being came into force, and medical care was divided into three levels; the first two, free, but in the third, which caters for specialties, many diseases, including cancer, were excluded from being free.

“It was arranged to collect recovery fees according to a socioeconomic study by case, but it is not mentioned that their costs are very high, and in the case of breast cancer, exorbitant “, because it involves surgeries, studies, chemotherapies, hospitalization and talking about total reconstruction” sounds like a real joke. “

He said that society must be sensitized and governments humanized. Understand that, in matters of public health and saving lives by winning the battle against cancer, the reasoning should not border between cost-benefit, between budgetary discipline and political and fiscal convenience ”.

He said that despite the prevention and diagnosis campaigns, its prevalence has not decreased; Together with cervical and ovarian cancer, they are the three types of cancer that most affect Mexican women aged 20 years or older. They cause five out of 10 deaths from this disease.

He explained that these tumors are detected in advanced stages and involve aggressive treatment, although they are diagnosed early, with periodic check-ups, chemo or radiotherapy sessions, and the removal of one or both breasts and the nodes in one or both armpits. It has serious physical, social and developmental effects. Total reconstruction is required because it affects the balance of the patient, but the procedures are denied as a matter of aesthetics.

He stressed that in private services it can cost at least half a million pesos, which is unaffordable; for this reason “it should be considered mandatory and as part of the basic subsequent treatment of breast cancer.”

In Mexico, he pointed out, the main cancers that cause mortality in the population between 30 and 59 years of age are in the digestive organs; hematopoietic, respiratory, female genitalia and breast; in children from 0 to 17 years old, leukemia; for people between 18 and 25 years old, leukemia and lymphatics, and in the population between 26 and 29 years old, breast, colon and cervical.

Also read: They steal the medicines of children with cancer

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